


Down to the Wire

by whitchry9



Series: no more vacations, like, ever [6]
Category: Daredevil (Comics), Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Blind Character, Brazil, Canon Disabilities, Deaf Character, Deaf Clint Barton, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Humour, Vacation, matt and clint are children, the hulk doesn't break brazil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 14:18:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4103949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitchry9/pseuds/whitchry9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce first thinks he'll go to someplace remote, because danger, but then says screw it. Because if he's getting dragged into the mess that is a vacation with Matt and Clint, then he's going to enjoy himself, dammit. So they go to Rio.</p><p> </p><p>In which no one escapes vacations with Clint and Matt. Not even Bruce Banner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down to the Wire

It started with a phone call, as it so often did, and that was his first mistake.

Caller ID.

Because if he'd known it was Clint, he wouldn't have answered. He'd heard the stories, about what happened in Russia, and Australia, and Hungary... Basically wherever they went, trouble followed.

And Bruce wanted no part of that.

 

But because he didn't have caller ID, he answered the phone, and it was Clint.

“Oh hey Bruce,” he chirped.

Bruce could have kicked himself. “Hi Clint,” he sighed.

Clint paused. “Did I call at a bad time.”

“No, I was just... my experiment isn't going as planned,” he lied.

“Oh, okay. So I was wondering, well, Matt and I were wondering if you'd like to hang out some time. We were thinking of a day trip down the coast or something, and wondered if you want to come.”

Bruce wracked his brain for an excuse.“Well, I'm not much of a traveller,” he sighed.

He could practically hear Clint frown. “You've been all over the world. Have you ever had time to actually enjoy the places you've been in?”

He had a point. “No,” Bruce admitted. He was usually more concerned about not destroying them rather than appreciating their architectural value and culture. There was a reason (besides the fact that he was broke) he'd lived in slums.

“Great! So this time you can actually enjoy it. Matt and I haven't decided where we want to go, so we figured we'd leave it up to you. Just not Australia. Matt is coming over tomorrow, so we can probably talk then, yeah?”

“Sure,” Bruce sighed.

With a goodbye, Clint hung up, and Bruce headed to his computer to search for a vacation destination.

 

* * *

 

“Your search history indicates you looked for places that were rather isolated,” Coulson commented, looking at something on his computer screen.

Honestly, Bruce wasn't surprised that Coulson had his internet history. There were worse things.

“Figured it would be best for me,” Bruce replied. “Seeing as how I have a tendency of growing when provoked, and then destroying things. Thought it would be better if there wasn't a lot around for me to destroy.”

“And yet you ended up going to a city with six and a half million people.”

Bruce shrugged. The theory was there, until he decided, screw it, and just chose somewhere he actually wanted to go. It was so _freeing._

 

* * *

 

“I've decided on Brazil,” he told them. It was the next morning, and they'd showed up in the kitchen on his floor, despite the fact that nearly everyone ate in the communal kitchen a couple levels away.

“Brazil is a big place,” Clint told him, like he was the expert on travel.

“I was thinking specifically Rio de Janeiro.”

Matt hummed. “Is that where the giant statue of Jesus is? I've kind of always wanted to see that.”

Bruce turned to look at Matt. “See it?”

Matt shrugged. “I see differently.”

Clint clapped his hands together and winced. “Excellent! So when are you free Bruce?”

Bruce sighed, knowing that lying wouldn't help, because they would simply wait for him to be free. He could never get out of it.

“Day after tomorrow?” he offered. He technically was free today, and tomorrow, but he needed time to mentally prepare himself for whatever was undoubtedly going to happen.

They both nodded, and left, thankfully.

He threw himself onto his bed, wondering if there was any way he could get out of it.

 

* * *

 

“Mm,” Coulson said.

“What's that mean?” Bruce asked.

“All of our focus groups suggest that it's impossible. But sorry, please continue.”

 

* * *

 

Bruce had to admit, it was nice not flying commercially. Clint had obtained a Quinjet, and was flying them comfortably to Rio.

 

“Why Rio?” Matt asked. He seemed nice enough, even if Bruce didn't know him very well outside of some stories, and one time that Hell's Kitchen was so overrun with ninjas that Daredevil had to call in outside help. But that was before Matt moved to San Francisco.

 

Bruce shrugged. There wasn't really any specific reason. “I lived there for a while, but I haven't seen any of it. I was sort of in a slum, so not much sightseeing went on.”

Matt patted him on the shoulder in what was probably supposed to be a reassuring manner. “We'll fix that.”

_That's what I'm afraid of._

 

So despite his better judgement, Bruce went to Brazil. Again.

 

* * *

 

They'd seen the giant statue of Jesus, which was apparently all that Matt was expecting and more. They had to hike all the way up there, because he couldn't 'see' things at a distance, and frankly, Bruce was exhausted after that.

 

But the next day seemed promising. They were going on a cable car ride to see the top of one of Rio's most popular destinations, Sugarloaf Mountain. There should be a lot less hiking involved with that.

 

Of course, that was the whole reason he didn't want to go on the vacation in the first place, because going places with Clint and Matt was simply asking for disaster to strike, and of course it did.

Because they went to the mountain and it all seemed to be well and good until it wasn't.

 

That's where things got a little... fuzzy. And green.

 

* * *

 

Coulson tilted his computer monitor so Bruce could see. “Understandable.”

The footage was obviously taken on a cell phone, because it was grainy and shaky, but no matter the quality, it was hard to mistake the giant green thing that was the star of the video.

 

Bruce winced. “I am _so_ sorry,” he repeated. “I wouldn't have gone if I thought this was going to happen. I'm still not even entirely sure what did happen.”

Coulson glanced between Clint and Matt, but neither of them said anything.

“Based on the reports I got, from two eyewitnesses...” he paused, and sighed. “From one eyewitness and... Mr Murdock, it appears that you, the Hulk, were a hero.”

Bruce stilled. “Really?” It wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. The other guy had been known to do good, but when he did, those transformations were usually controlled, and he remembered some of them. This one was unexpected and a blank space in his mind, which usually meant it was just filled with a lot of smashing and destruction.

But no.

“Huh,” he commented. “How, exactly?”

Coulson played the footage from the beginning, and Bruce squinted, trying to piece the shards of his memories together with the clip to make something that he could understand.

 

* * *

 

Bruce squinted up at the cable cars. “Are you sure they're safe?”

Matt tilted his head, listening maybe. “Probably. I don't hear anything that could be a weak point.”

Right. How reassuring. He glanced sideways at Clint, who was also examining the cable cars.

“It's just, I've lived here before, and I'm not sure I want to trust it.”

“Hey, it's been around since 1912, and is considered one of the safest in the world,” Clint defended.

Bruce sighed. “Okay. Get the tickets then. And just... promise me that you won't do anything...” he trailed off, not quite sure how to finish that so as to encompass everything that had happened on their previous vacations. “Anything,” he finished, deciding that was really the only way he could cover all the bases.

Clint beamed at him. “Have we ever?”

Bruce only stared at his retreating back. “Does he even remember what happened the last couple of times you guys left the country?”

Matt sighed. “I don't know why it keeps happening.”

Bruce shook his head. “Even if this goes well, I'm never going with you guys anywhere ever again. It's just asking for something terrible to happen.”

“Nothing terrible has happened,” Matt protested, but it was only halfhearted.

Bruce glared at him, and Matt sensed it somehow, because he wilted and shrugged. “We never try to do anything. We just sort of... wander into situations. I blame Clint to be honest.”

Clint was jogging back over to them, tickets clutched in his hand, and judging by the look on his face, he'd read Matt's lips or heard him. Possibly both.

“Oh damn,” Matt muttered. “He's mad.”

Clint went in for a swing, but Matt blocked it with his cane and ducked Clint's arm swinging wildly.

“Children,” Bruce said mildly, stepping in between the two of them. “I believe this is exactly what we were trying to avoid.”

Clint straightened up, still glaring at Matt. “He was mean,” he protested.

“Truth,” Matt muttered.

“What time are the tickets for?” Bruce asked, ignoring both of them.

“Whenever we want I think. They leave every twenty minutes, so it's not a huge deal if we miss the next one. Oh, and there are actually two cars we have to take. It's sort of a multi-part journey. There's stuff halfway up, then more stuff at the top. Cool?”

He was mostly directing this to Bruce, he realized, as Matt was supposed to be the man without fear, and Clint wouldn't have gotten the tickets if he wasn't okay with it.

“I'm not afraid of heights Clint,” he replied.

“That's good. I was mostly worried about the other guy, but yeah, okay.”

Bruce frowned slightly, but ignored him. “So what is there to do once we get up there?”

“The middle part has a helicopter pad,” Matt noted. “I can hear it.”

Clint nodded. “It also has an amphitheatre, whatever that's used for, shops or something, restaurants, walkways and paths, discos?” he paused. “Not sure what that means. Maybe a translation error. Then once we get to the very top, it's more for the view than anything else I think, but there are shops and food. Gotta milk the tourists for all they're worth.”

Matt snorted. “You say that now, but before we leave, you'll have eaten at least two new foods, and bought at least three souvenirs.”

“Hey! One of those is for Nat. You know that she likes something from every place I go.”

“That was supposed to be for missions,” Matt pointed out.

Clint shrugged. “Point still stands.”

 

Bruce cleared his throat before Matt could decide that punching Clint was a good idea.

“Why don't we go see where the cable cars are at?” he suggested.

Matt glared at Clint, but didn't actually hit him, so Bruce counted that as a win.

“Yeah, sure,” he agreed. “Coming Clinton?”

“Don't call me that,” Clint muttered, but followed behind Matt anyway, and Bruce trailed after them both.

 

The cable car ride was... interesting. Clint seemed somewhat uneasy about the whole thing, and Bruce really couldn't tell what Matt was thinking. That man had a great poker face. Or maybe he was meditating.

Bruce had never been too bothered by heights, and while the other guy couldn't really be hurt by them, he still grumbled whenever Bruce pondered just how long of a drop it would be.

 

* * *

 

Coulson scribbled a note on a sheet of paper. (And really, why was he still using paper, wasn't everything electronic? Maybe he didn't trust computers, since Tony could hack everything. Okay, it was kind of smart.)

Bruce wondered if he knew about the height experiments. Probably. Coulson seemed to know everything. He pushed that thought aside and continued on with the story.

 

* * *

 

They'd made it back to the base of the mountain, and were perusing souvenirs (Matt tried to argue that Clint didn't need anymore), when there was a disturbing creaking sound outside the building they were in.

All three of them dropped their potentials souvenirs and hurried outside. Typical, Bruce reflected, that they would run towards the danger.

 

 

“Um, you guys heard that sound too right?” Clint asked, craned his neck around to see where the sound was coming from. Matt was doing his head tilty thing that meant he was listening for the location of the sound. Bruce had already located it, being the cable car that had just left. It had somehow come partly undone from the cable, and was dangling precariously. So much for being one of the safest in the world.

“Shit,” he muttered.

 

* * *

 

“This is where I take over,” Clint butted in.

Bruce only held his hands up in surrender and made no attempt to stop him. He was kind of interested to hear what exactly happened anyway.

 

* * *

 

Matt listened as Bruce began to change and grow, the sickening sound of bones breaking and reforming overly loud in his ears. (“What?” Matt asked. “I can provide input. It's not just your story.” Clint told him to shut up.)

Matt shuddered. “Shit. I'm going to help.”

“What the hell are you supposed to do?” Clint bellowed.

“Anything?” he replied, already soaring through the air. “I'll hold the fort until Banner is ready.”

“You can't parkour everywhere Matt!” Clint yelled after him.

“I object,” he bellowed, swinging towards the dangling cable car.

“Fucking lawyers,” he muttered to himself. And without his bow, he was pretty much useless. There was nothing he could fight, no hand-to-hand combat to engage in. There was nothing for him to plan or strategize. All he could do was watch.

 

Nearby, Bruce was... gone. Or maybe he was still there, hidden inside somewhere. But it was all Hulk now. No matter how many times he'd seen him transform, seen the massive power that he possessed, been caught by him when his perch had crumbled just a little too much, he'd never be used to it. The power he had was breathtaking and magnificent.

Clint just smiled at him as Hulk made eye contact. “Go be a hero,” he urged, and he needed no more encouragement than that. He leaped off the ground, and in one bound, he was next to Matt. He hung off the side of the cliff, and oh god that was a long fall, even for Hulk, and picked the cable car up gently in two massive hands and set it back on the ground. Matt landed gently next to it and pried the doors open. They were a little dented after Hulk held them, no matter how gentle he was.

 

Clint didn't even realize he was running towards them until he nearly tripped over his own feet. Some spy he was.

He made himself as useful as he could (which reminded him of the whole New York fiasco, where he was prying open bus doors to let civilians out while the rest of the team killed Chitauri around him) which mostly entailed helping people out of the damaged cable car and tending to any injuries. He was no doctor, but he had more than a basic training in first aid thanks to SHIELD.

 

Thankfully the most serious injury was a possibly broken arm, with a lot of bruises and sore spots. Clint's Portuguese was... terrible to say the least, but thankfully nearly everyone that worked there spoke English as well. It was a good thing too, since the park supervisor determined that it wouldn't be safe to send cable cars down the now damaged line. Which meant that everyone still on the summit had to be airlifted off, a few people at a time in the helicopter, or taken down some other way.

Which mostly meant Bruce and Matt. Well, Hulk and Matt. Well, mostly Hulk, since Matt could really only carry one person at a time.

And since it was getting dark out, and the helicopter was becoming less of a viable option, Matt and Hulk, neither of whom the darkness had any effect on, were bearing the brunt of the work.

Clint mostly just stood around ready to check people over when they were dumped

 

Hulk dumped two people carefully in front of Clint before leaping back down the side of the mountain. He'd taken to climbing down the one hill, then back up the other one. Apparently there were climbing areas, but were tricky enough to do in the daylight, let alone by inexperienced people in the dark.

Matt, having deemed the cable safe enough to carry the weight of at least two people, had started ziplining people across. Ziplining. Was that even a verb? He was pretty sure Matt made it up.

 

He shook his head and focused on the people in front of him. Two women, one at least sixty years old and the other no more than thirty.

“Uh... Como você está? No, wait. Você está bem? Você está ferido?” he asked.

The younger woman shook her head. “Eu estou bem. Apenas com medo. I speak English too.”

Clint nodded and looked at the elderly woman again. “Minha senhora. Você está bem?” He tried a different language. “Señora. ¿Estás bien? Are you okay?”

“I think she might be deaf,” the young woman offered. “She didn't really seem to respond to that thing... roaring.”

Clint grinned. “I got this.” He tapped the woman on the shoulder and made sure she was looking at him before he signed.

_You okay?_ he asked. She only frowned, and began signing back at him, none of which he recognized.

“Aw, come on,” he groaned. “That's gotta be Brazilian sign language or something. I don't know that.” He sighed. “Well, she doesn't seem to be hurt. Can you go with her over to the second cable car? They're lifting people down from there, and I'm sure she didn't come here alone. Probably got a dozen grandkids waiting on her. They were probably taken down in a helicopter.”

The younger woman nodded, and took the woman by the shoulder, leading her towards the meeting site.

“Sinto muito. Eu não entendi,” she said as the woman kept signing at her. “Sinto muito.”

 

Clint looked up for the next batch, hoping that at least he'd know whatever language they spoke.

 

* * *

 

“Out of curiosity, how many sign languages do you know by now Agent Barton? I've lost track,” Coulson asked.

“ASL, BSL, International Sign, and French. Can I get back to the story?”

Bruce rolled his eyes, but Coulson humoured him and nodded seriously.

“Thank you.”

 

* * *

 

Clint looked around, rather pleased with himself. People saved, Bruce with his pants still on, Natasha's souvenir acquired. Life was good. Sure, their vacation turned out to be sort of a disaster... again, but no one was seriously hurt, and that meant it was okay.

He patted his pocket to make sure his souvenirs were still safe. Yep. They were still there.

He jogged over to where Matt and Bruce were huddled together on the ground, Matt sheltering him from prying eyes.

“So,” he began. “I'm feeling like ice cream.”

Despite Bruce's obvious exhaustion, the guy managed to grin.

 

* * *

 

“That was... very informative, Agent Barton. You and Mr Murdock are dismissed.”

Clint beamed slightly, and nudged Matt as he got up. “Wanna go give Nat the souvenir?”

Matt grinned. “Hell yes. I can't wait to see what she says.”

 

Coulson watched them leave, and rubbed his temples slightly. “I don't want to know, do I?”

“No,” Bruce said truthfully.

Coulson nodded. “You did good,” he said simply. “You and the big guy. I'm not saying you should go on more vacations, but I'm glad you did go on this one.”

“No more vacations for me I think. Not with them at least,” Bruce added, jerking his shoulder towards the door they'd just left from.

Coulson nodded again with a knowing smile. “Talk to Stark about that caller ID. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to have it.”

“I could get angry at him,” Bruce said evenly.

Coulson eyed him for a moment before smiling. “I think he'd rather relish the opportunity.”

“You're probably right,” Bruce conceded.

“I often am.”

They shared a small smile for another minute before Bruce nodded at him and left.

He probably should talk to Tony, if only to warn him that going on trips with Clint and Matt was just asking for trouble.

He paused in that train of thought. Knowing Tony, that would only make him more interested in going on a trip with them.

He sighed. There was honestly no winning.

Well, at least it wouldn't be him.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Translations from Portuguese. (As ever, blame google translate if anything is wrong.)
> 
> How are you?  
> Are you okay?  
> Are you hurt?  
> I'm fine. Just scared.  
> Madam. Are you okay?  
> Lady, are you okay? (In Spanish)  
> Sorry, I don't understand.
> 
>  
> 
> Next up is Tony in Japan, and after that is all of them going on a road trip, which I'm doing for a Marvel bang. (Which I need an artist for, if you're interested. Wink.)


End file.
